Squier Affinity Stratocaster Electric Guitar - Black

The Squier Affinity Stratocaster is one of the most popular electric guitars ever made. Using sister brand, Squier, Fender distilled the key design elements of its iconic Stratocaster, and built a guitar that shared its DNA, but a much lower price. It almost instantly became the first choice of beginner guitar, and remains a brilliant first guitar today.

It shares the same body design as its Fender sibling. This curvy, double-cutaway shape was something that Leo Fender spent some time perfecting, aiming to make the Strat (his second guitar design) more comfortable than the 1st (the Telecaster). It’s still one of the most comfortable guitars to play, six decades after it was launched. Here, it is made from solid Alder.

The neck is bolt-on maple design, again, like its Fender predecessors. This has advantages over glued-in, set-neck designs, not least of which that it makes the guitar significantly tougher. The neck is shaped to a ‘C’ profile, which has a ‘just so’ comfortable feel. An Indian Laurel fingerboard with 21 medium jumbo frets completes the neck.

Versatile tone

Three single coil pickups are fitted to the Affinity Strat, wired with a 5-way selector switch, with two tone controls and a master volume control. The pickups and controls fitted to the Stratocaster are a major contributing factor to the design’s popularity. Via these, a staggering range of tones can be achieved, making it one of the most versatile guitars that money can buy.

A 6-saddle vintage style Tremolo bridge is fitted, which provides the means to perform pitch bend techniques, and six standard die-cast tuners are fitted at the headstock. A white scratchplate provides a nice, visual contrast to the classic, 3-tone sunburst finish.

The Squier Affinity Stratocaster is one of the most popular guitars available for very good reason. It is derived from a guitar design that is still available largely unchanged, some sixty years after it was launched. It is also one of the most versatile beginner guitars that you can buy. Ultimately, though, it’s a guitar that sounds great and plays just as well, with the same good looks as its prestigious ancestors.